Corruption
by AllStarsBurnAsOne
Summary: A Sith acolyte sacrifices herself for love. One Jedi grieves over the loss of her Padawan, another massacres thousands. Corruption leaks through the force and obscures the light. (During and post-Dark Disciple)
1. Coruscant - The Calm Before the Storm

When Obi-wan wakes him up in the middle of the night, Quinlan knows that something unauthorized and possibly illegal, is about to happen. Usually, he'd welcome it, blowing off steam between missions, letting himself go before having to make up yet another falsified persona. Tonight, however, he finds that he'd rather stay in bed. Maybe, like Fisto keeps joking, its because he's getting older, running out of steam. But he's pretty sure it has something to do with the anxious feeling in his stomach, knowing that tomorrow he'll have to track down, trick, and ally with a Sith agent. Or, as Obi-wan keeps insisting, a _former_ Sith agent. As if that makes any difference. Sure, he's conned some pretty bad people, but a Sith definitely takes the cake.

"Quinlan, I know you're awake." Obi-wan's smooth accent cuts through the silence. "Don't make me flip the bed over."

"Fine," Quinlan mutters, sitting up and grudgingly pulling himself out of the bed. "What is it, Obi-wan?"

"We're going out."

"We?"

Not a second after he asks the question, he becomes aware of more force presences waiting outside of his door. It takes his sleep-addled brain a moment to identify them as Fisto and Koth; the usual troublemakers. "Oh."

Quinlan sighs, defeated. He's obviously not getting out of this one. Quickly, he pulls on his street clothes, stowing his lightsaber away in a special compartment in his coat. "Let's go."

He exits his room with Obi-wan and begins to walk the familiar path down to the hangar. He's surprised, though, when Obi-wan and the others take a turn that isn't a part of their normal escape route. Quinlan is about to voice his confusion when they stop at a door that is surprisingly familiar. This can't be right, he thinks. _She'd_ never do something like _this_. But it happens, all the same. Kit Fisto, giggling like the child he still is at heart, raises a fist to knock, and the door swings open to reveal none other than Luminara Unduli.

She's dressed in a way that Quinlan has never seen her dress before. Her headdress is gone, revealing dark hair that brushes her jawline, much longer than the close-cropped styles that Quinlan has caught glimpses of over the years. Her clothing is tight and covers much less than her Jedi attire, revealing that Luminara has many more tattoos than Quinlan's ever seen. Her face is the same, however: stoic and unfeeling, but Quinlan swears he sees a hint of a twisted smile cross her face at the look of utter shock he's sure is evident in his own features.

"Luminara?" He manages to choke out, before she strides out of her doorway to join him and the others. The look she gives him clearly communicates: _"We'll talk later."_

He manages to hold back his questions until they're in the speeder, the streets of Coruscant rushing by beneath them. He and Luminara are crammed into a seat for two with Kit Fisto next to them, laughing hysterically at some joke Eeth Koth, turned completely around in the seat in front of them, has just made.

"So," He asks the mirilan woman next to him, raising his voice to compete with the wind, "Exactly how much has changed since I've been gone?" He tries to keep his voice steady, inject a bit of humor into it, but in reality he feels guilty. His oldest childhood friend has obviously gone through an enormous transformation, and he has no idea why. His undercover jobs keep him away for such long periods of time, and he tries not to let it bother him, but his absence in the lives of his fellow Jedi always comes back somehow, and he remembers that he's a stranger in the Temple.

Luminara smiles at him. Its something he hasn't seen since they were children, but her smile is sad now, as if she understands the sorrows of the world and finds it almost funny that she is burdened with them. "My padawan. I'm sure you didn't hear."

The guilt stabs at him again. "Bariss? What happened?" He hopes, prays, that its some temporary setback, that Bariss hasn't died, or worse, that she hasn't-

"She betrayed us." Luminara's voice cracks, and the heavy black that she's marked under her lash line begins to run, stained with tears. "She left us."

"Luminara, I'm-"

"It's okay, Quinlan. I know you didn't know."

Quinlan wants to bury his face in his hands, chastise himself for not being there for her. But instead he pushes his sorrow for himself aside, and wraps his friend in his embrace. "I'm so sorry, Luminara."

They stay like that for a while, until Luminara stops shaking with repressed sobs. "Do I look okay?" She laughs weakly as she pulls away.

"Yeah, of course you do," Quinlan mutters back, more out of instinct than any inspection of her physical appearance. He tries to hold the question back, but its on the tip of his tongue and as soon as he opens his mouth, it rolls right off. "So...what's with all...this?" He gestures at he hair, her clothes, at the city around them, growing progressively darker as they descend into the bowels of the planet.

She smiles again, this time more sheepishly than anything else. "We all have ways of coping, I suppose." He smiles back, because, boy, does he know about coping.

The speeder settles down, finally, raising up a fair amount of dust and garbage. They exit, Obi-wan in the lead, heading towards an enormous grey building from which vibrations of electronic music can already be felt. When they enter, Quinlan is blown away at the volume of the music. He looks over at Luminara next to him, only to find that she's been transformed. The colored lights have washed over her face, making her look almost like a stranger. An almost insane grin breaks across her features, and Quinlan can barely make out a syllable before she grabs his hand and pulls him towards the bar. The other three are laughing and yelling behind it, and before Quinlan knows it, Luminara has ordered them all shots and he's pouring alcohol down his throat like a madman. Luminara wanted to talk about coping? Well in that case, he sure had a lot of coping to do.

To his surprise, Luminara cuts them off at round five. He should have seen it coming, he figures. Even like this, Luminara is still the same strict, responsible woman he's always known. Fisto and Koth get up to dance, and Luminara goes with them. They ask him to come, too, but he opts to stay at the bar with Obi-wan.

"I'm assuming you feel as if you have to watch over her," Obi-wan comments, signaling the bartender to bring them more drinks.

"Yeah." Quinlan grunts back a response. He isn't sure how he feels about it, but it certainly isn't a comfortable feeling, especially as he watches her dance up against strangers, laughing obliviously.

"You feel guilty, don't you?"

"Shut up, Obi-wan." He doesn't feel like joking around anymore. He wishes he were still at the Temple, asleep and ignorant of the fact that he'd failed one of his friends. Again.

"Well, I don't blame you. Maybe Luminara would have recovered in a more...orthodox manner if you'd been there to guide her through it all." Obi-wan's voice has taken on a bitter tone. He's not joking anymore, either.

"You some kinda lightweight, all of a sudden?" Quinlan can feel the anger bubbling up and twisting inside of his chest and he struggles to keep it contained, the way a Jedi is supposed to. "Are you drunk already, _Kenobi_? Because you're not sounding like a sober man right now."

Obi-wan's eyes narrow at the way Quinlan uses his last name. "Not at all, _Vos,_ " He returns the favor. "I'm just letting you know what I think of you're little _act_ , spending all of your time with the galaxy's scum, 'undercover.'" He spits out the last word sarcastically. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you preferred their company to ours."

That settles it. Quinlan slams hisfist on the bar counter, hard enough for the cheap marble to crack underneath it. He rises from his seat, ready to draw his lightsaber and settle whatever problem Obi-wan had with him, but a glimpse over at Luminara stops him. He sinks back into his seat. He's already caused her -all of them- enough grief. He breathes, letting the anger drain from his mind, and tries to think logically. Obi-wan, clearly drunk, must have started drinking before they'd gotten to the bar. How Quinlan hadn't noticed and how they hadn't died with him driving is a mystery to him but the fact remains that Obi-wan's force signature feels off, and he's saying things he'd never say while in his right mind. Something that happened earlier must have set him off, Quinlan thinks. Then it comes to him.

"Its Ventress, isn't it?"

Obi-wan freezes where he is, almost dropping his drink. "No."

"Look, Obi-wan, whatever it is you two have going on, I'm not going to-"

"There is _nothing_ going on!" This time the drink _does_ drop, thrown to the ground in anger. No one else at the bar pays them any mind, to them they just look like a normal pair of friends, having a normal drunk fight. In the moment, Quinlan finds himself wishing that it was true more than anything.

"We need to get you home, Obi-wan."

To his surprise, he manages to force signal the others through the thick mass of bodies and hormones. Upon their arrival, which they make in significantly less clothing and significantly more sweat, Quinlan explains the complex situation:

"Obi-wan's drunk."

Fisto and Koth nod in understanding, and Luminara, having significantly less experience, pouts for a moment until a slurred "Fuck you," from Obi-wan convinces her of the severity of the situation. They leave the club in a much quieter manner than the one in which they'd arrived, Koth taking the wheel after having been decided the most sober of the five, most likely due to his Zabrack genetics. Luminara falls asleep on Quinlan's shoulder, where he lets her stay until they arrive at the Temple. He gently shakes her awake and walks with her back to her room after Fisto and Koth promise to take care of Obi-wan. He's sure Kenobi will wake up with at least one inappropriate drawing on his body.

"Quinlan?"

"Yeah, Luminara?" They've stopped in her doorway.

"Obi-wan didn't say anything to you at the bar, right? I mean, nothing like he was saying when we took him out..."

For a second, Quinlan considers telling her everything. About Obi-wan's words, about how true they rang in his own mind, about how he didn't even know who he _was,_ or _whose_ company he enjoyed, about how scared he was to go undercover with a _Sith_.

Then he sees the hurt in her eyes as she looks at him, remembers Bariss, remembers that tomorrow he'll be gone again, and that Luminara doesn't need something else to worry about, to fuel sorrow her as she tries to cope with her life collapsing around her. He knows he won't be able to forgive himself if he becomes the reason that, tomorrow, she doesn't stop at five shots.

"Of course not, Luminara. Of course not."

* * *

The next morning, he hugs her goodbye and climbs onto his transport. Obi-wan walks onto the loading dock, guilt in his eyes, and waves hopefully. Anger bubbles up inside Quinlan's chest.

He grins brightly, and waves back.


	2. The Temple - Vigil

_Jedi do not form attachments._

Obi-wan's sudden presence outside of her door is the only thing that saves Luminara Unduli from choking on her own breath.

She has spend the past week locked up inside of her quarters trying to meditate to no avail. The feeling of blank calm that has come naturally to her since she was a Padawan has been lost somehow, drowned in the inescapable despair of _Quinlan, Quinlan, Quinlan,_ and _Bariss, Barris, Barris._ They're gone, she has to remind herself. They are gone, and it is not her fault, and _Jedi do not form attachments_ and _obsession over possessions and people creates the fear of losing those possessions and relationships which causes a Jedi to be trapped in a state of depression and loss_ and _There is no Emotion, there is Peace-_

When she senses Kenobi, raising a hesitant fist to knockon her door, she forces herself to breathe, forces her limbs to unlock from their fetal position. When she stands, her stomach protests, roiling so violently that she almost falls back onto the floor. She grits her teeth, forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other, until she waves one shaking palm in front of the door, signaling it open. She is surprised that she can still use the force at all.

"Sorry to bother you, Master Unduli, but I-" Obi-wan Kenobi looks up, and stops short at what Luminara can only assume is her disheveled appearance. "It seems that neither of us has been having a very good week."

He tries to infuse the phrase with a snicker and a crooked smile, but he doesn't seem to have the energy, and the humorous energy falls flat. He looks as bad as Luminara feels. Dark, crescent-moon circles are stamped firmly under his eyes, and his usually neat, slicked-back hair falls in scraggly pieces around his face, drawing large shadows across the anemic tone of his skin.

"Hm." Luminara tries to offer a smile in return, but her the corners of her mouth seem weighed down and she gives up.

"Come in, Master Kenobi." The words feel thick on her tongue, as if dust has gathered there in the absence of speech.

Obi-wan trudges in exhaustedly and slumps onto the edge of her bed. Normally, two Jedi Masters would stand to discuss matters, but Luminara can already feel her legs beginning to wear out and sits down next to him. The tension in the silence between them is only dampened by the tiredness that they seem to share, neither wanting to discuss what they know will be inevitably brought up. Finally, Obi-wan takes it on himself to begin.

"I know he was your best friend, Luminara. I'm sorry."

She feels a lump rise in her throat at his words. "Jedi do not form attachments." The words pass through gritted teeth. Obi-wan sighs.

"Luminara-"

"No." She grits her teeth again, clenches her jaw and tries to keep down the tears that are welling up in her eyes. Not now. Not in front of another Jedi Master.

"I lost someone too, you know."

She looks up, surprised. _How could she have forgotten?_

"Ventress."

Obi-wan only nods, and she sees the pain in her eyes. She hasn't given a second thought to the former Sith that had joined Quinlan on his mission, except to perhaps try and shift the blame onto her for what had happened to her friend. She has no reason to feel compassion for the woman. She'd saved Quinlan's life, but all that had done in Luminara's mind was counteract the massive damage and tragedy that the woman had caused before abandoning the Dark Side, something Luminara is reminded of almost daily by jolts of pain in her leg, which has never truly healed. Still, she feels compassion for Kenobi. She knows as well as the rest of the council that his relationship with the Sith woman had been… _complicated._

"I am truly sorry, Master Kenobi." She knows that he words mean as as his.

"Don't trouble yourself, Luminara. It's a bit hard for everyone to remember, after…all that."

All that. Ventresses' sacrifice, the lonely burial on Darthomir, Quinlan gone, perhaps for good.

"You got to be with her." Luminara is surprised to hear herself say. "After everything, you were there to bury her. That must count for something, Master Kenobi."

Obi-wan's smile this time is genuine, but she notices the glittering sheen that has gathered at the corners of his eyes.

"Yes, Luminara, I suppose it does."

Its not enough, and they both know it. Luminara can feel his pain, fresh as if it were only yesterday that he forced himself to walk away from Quinlan and Ventress, to allow the traitorous Jedi to take her final moments.

"I'm sorry, Obi-wan. I know it wasn't enough."

"I had her, Luminara. It was only once, but I did. She came after me, looking for Vos, and we- we were both intoxicated and- I…I think I loved her, Luminara."

A wave of shock hits her at his sudden outpouring of emotions, but it's dulled by the heavy feeling inside of her, the same entity that has taken away her ability to care for the Jedi or the code. A few months ago, she would have gasped in shock, reported Kenobi to Yoda or the council, but now she can only nod in understanding, trying to ignore the way that tears are now flowing freely down Kenobi's cheeks.

They sit in silence, letting the heaviness in their chests seal their lips and dull their vision while they watch the sun set through the blinds.

 _Jedi do not form attachments._


	3. Interlude

A/N: This chapter takes place after the events in "Oblivion", but can be read independently

It is dawn.

The sunlight slowly creeps into the room, only to get swept up and trapped in the dense cloud of pink smoke that circulates the space, sealed tightly to keep the smell of Ambrian cheroots from wafting into the rest of the temple.

"I always felt bad for him."

Eeth Koth's voice slips through the vapor, his form practically invisible behind its thickness.

"Sure, Eeth." Agen Kolar responds, only distinguishable from the other Zabrak through the outline of his long hair, swaying as he leans forward to inhale from the hookah that sits at the center of Eeth's meditation chair. "Your pity was dully noted as you advocated for the man's death."

"Your dedication to your impossible ideals is admirably strong, considering the circumstances." Leaning out of the pink haze long enough to offer his companion a condescending smirk, Eeth toasts the group with his mouthpiece before retreating back into nonexistence.

"We must believe in the good of our fellow Jedi. It is not for us to end the life of a brother who has simply lost his way."

The veil around them shifts slightly, disturbed from its stagnancy.

"You're high as _haikta_ , Agen."

The Zabraki expletive draws an explosive laugh from across the makeshift hookah table, and Kit Fisto leans forward, coughing from the sudden disturbance to his lungs.

"All in good fun, right Eeth?"

He claps an amphibious hand on his friend's thigh and forcefully expels more of the heavy pink smoke. His peace-making nature is still intact, Agen notes, but his eyes are dimmed and his eyelids are heavy. Kit is more of a glitterstim man, the younger Zabrak recalls, remembering the his own introduction to the hallucinogen at the hands of the Nautolan.

He remembers realizing that Fisto's eyes look like the stars.

The room tilts as he turns to look at his two companions, not lost enough in the smoke to hide the fact that Eeth's hand is sliding down one of Kit's tentacles, or that Fisto's hand has begun moving upwards from its position on the older Zabrak's thigh.

He shakes his head and raises his mouthpiece and inhales. The rose-colored curtain falls once again.

He closes his eyes.

 _"…no more glitterstim for me, Eeth. Not since Nadar."_

 _"…Sharad Hett. More times than I care to count."_

 _"…We're all going to die, you know."_

…..

The room comes rushing back to him.

The pink brume has thickened further. Agen finds himself grateful for the murmur of Kit and Eeth's voices through the fog, grounding him and easing the spinning of his head.

"We're going to die?" The words slur their way past his lips before his cheroots-addled brain can interpret them.

"Of course we are." Fisto's booming laugh is miraculously intact, if not a bit morbid.

A gasp, then a moan, comes from the direction of his companions and Agen is thankful for the density of the smoke, now solid like a wall and unmoving between them.

"We're Jedi, after all."


	4. Purgatory - Culmination

They sit together. They don't talk, they don't move. For a long time, she doesn't even look at him.

It's getting late. The last, dusky strands of sunlight are beginning to slip away through the half-closed shutters of his room. It is much emptier than is used to be, stripped down to its bare, spartan necessities. Everything else in the room, any personal belongings, mementos, are gone. They were far too painful reminders of the man that he'd been before.

"I stopped going out." Luminara Unduli breaks the silence.

Quinlan Vos laughs. It feels odd, forced. "Probably for the best."

Silence again. Almost a year, he hasn't seen her. A year, spent in seclusion with Master Yoda as his only company, occasional visits from a concerned Obi-wan Kenobi and an angry Mace Windu, almost too eager to follow through with the threat of execution. She looks so much older, much more tired than he rememberes, but he figures that she's probably always looked that way. He can't help but keep the image of a happier, carefree Luminara in his mind, especially when _this_ is the reality.

"This is what happens, you know. This is why the Jedi do not form attachments." Luminara is always so curt, to the point. It hurts him.

"You know, Luminara, I-"

"I should know."

He doesn't expect that. Then he looks into her eyes and sees the hurt and it _hits_ him. Luminara has tried so hard to be the perfect Jedi, an example of the code for everyone to follow. But she can't escape attachment any more than the rest of them can. Bariss must have been like this for her. The loss that he has felt for the past year, ever since Ventress died in his arms- Luminara knew what it was like. She'd lost her padawan to the dark side, and then-

It takes everything in Quinlan's power to stop himself from collapsing then and there. Luminara had lost _him_.

"Luminara, I-" He chokes. He can't bring himself to speak.

She shakes her head and looks away, a faint glimmer of tears caught in the faint remainder of sunlight in the room. "It's okay Quinlan. You came back."

He nods back, and moves his hand closer to her own, studying the small pattern of squares tattooed onto her almost golden skin. He lets it rest there, the edge of his palm barely touching hers. The old Quinlan would have hugged Luminara tight, entwined their hands until Luminara became embarrassed and moved away. He can't even imagine that anymore. Even now, the inch of contact between them twists his stomach with discomfort and fear. Not of Luminara, but of himself. How many more people will he hurt? How many will end up like Desh, like Ventress, because of him?

Suddenly, a calm washes over him. He looks up to see Luminara gazing serenely at him, pushing waves of calm through her hand into his, through the tiny, tiny amount of touching skin. The warmth of her hand breathes onto his.

"It's over." Luminara whispers.

Quinlan tries to smile. It doesn't work. Everything feels too heavy, even with Luminara beside him. He'll never be the same anymore. Nothing will.

 _I guess I had to grow up, eventually._


End file.
